In the past, several attempts have been made to develop an electroless process for plating nickel. Most of these electroless processes depended on the decomposition of some type of nickel compound or complex. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,529,989 to Jordan et al. refers to the plating of nickel by the thermal decomposition of a tetrakis(triorganophosphine) nickel (O). U.S. Pat. No. 3,619,288 to Sirtl refers to the plating of nickel by the thermal decomposition of a nickel trifluorophosphine complex. Unfortunately, the above-mentioned processes require temperatures in the 200.degree.-600.degree. C. range for decomposition to occur. While such temperatures are satisfactory for most applications, some applications require the coating of nickel on temperature sensitive substrates, such as optical fibers and plastics. Furthermore, the low temperature deposition of nickel may be a convenient method of making complex-shaped plastic surfaces conductive. Additionally, thin nickel films are useful catalysts in the production of synthetic fuels.